I hate spending tons of money on pasta sauce, and we go through a lot of it! At the farmer’s market, I know that I can get a huge basket of not so pretty, bruised, or overripe. If no one else is going to use them in time, I will. Waste not, want not. By now you all know how much I absolutely hate food waste with so many people that go without.
Today at the farmer’s market, I did what I always do and went straight to the middle booth to check out their seconds. This is 7.5lbs of tomatoes and just aren’t pretty enough for other people to want to buy. I paid $2 for the lot of them. I also bought a big basket of green bell peppers for $3! Those I will cut into 1/2 slices and 1/2 diced for the freezer to have some peppers on hand for different dishes that just call for a handful.
So what is there to do with all of those tomatoes? That’s right! Homemade pasta sauce. We still have some herbs left outside so that was an excellent idea.
What do we need?
- 2 large onions
- 1 green bell pepper
- 7-8 lbs of tomatoes
- 1/2 c water
- 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- a handful of fresh herbs
- 1.5 tsp pink salt
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 1 head of garlic sliced
- 3 Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tsp hot pepper flakes
- handful of spinach or kale (optional, but I use either if I have them)
How do I make this?
- Dice up your bell pepper, minced or sliced garlic (I did some of each), and your onions. Put them in the pressure cooker with your olive oil.
- Set the pressure cooker to your “meat” setting or if you don’t have that just set it to 10 minutes. This will saute your peppers and onions.
- While you are letting that go, large dice your tomatoes.
- Let the pressure out of your cooker (so you don’t blow your face clean off).
- Add in the rest of the ingredients.
- Close up the pressure cooker and set it for 10 minutes (or meat setting)
- Once you let the pressure out the second time, taste the liquid to see if you should add more seasonings.
Let’s get saucy!
When all of your flavors are just the way you want them, your sauce is almost done. Decision time. Do you want smooth or chunky pasta sauce? Morgan likes her sauce smooth, so that’s what I did. Get yourself a high power blender and teach this sauce who’s boss!
Blend that bad boy up and get it into your jars. You want to fill your jars but leave 1″ space for expanding. Put your jars into your pressure cooker again but with your riser and fill with water 1/4 of the way up your jars.
Set your pressure cooker for “canning” or for 6 minutes if you have a timer setting instead. Carefully remove your jars from the pressure cooker with canning tongs when your timer goes off. As the jars cool, you will hear the little popping sound of them sealing. Final product looks beautiful!
Jen's Vegan Kitchen 